With the season of eating, drinking and being merry fast approaching, you might be after a lighter dinner before then.
Mark from Dingle Cookery School has the ideal mac and cheese recipe that isn't anything like the heavy mac and cheese you might expect.
Roast Cauliflower and Smoked Bacon Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients:
- 400 ml milk
- 400 ml chicken stock
- 3 cloves of garlic, sliced
- nutmeg, generous grating
- 30 g butter
- 30 g flour
- 500 g pasta
- olive oil
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 5/6 smoked rashers or streaky bacon, diced
- 200 g cheddar, grated
- 100 g parmesan
- 100 g breadcrumbs
- salt and pepper
Method:
- Pre heat the oven to 180ºC.
- In a small pot add the milk, stock, garlic and nutmeg and bring to a simmer, do not let it boil, and leave to infuse for a few minutes. Keeping the garlic for later use, strain the milk infusion into a jug and allow to cool a little.
- Clean this pot and put it back on a low heat, melt the butter and add the flour and cook this for 2-3 minutes over a low heat. Pour the milk infusion into this in one go and use a wooden spoon to stir so that there are no lumps. Allow this to cook for 15 minutes or so.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Strain the pasta when done.
- Put a pan over medium to high heat and once hot add some oil. Add in the cauliflower and brown on all sides for about 5 minutes.
- Once ready, remove the cauliflower and add the bacon to the same pan and allow to brown.
- In a large bowl, add the milk infusion, the cauliflower and bacon and the pasta and mix well. Add in about 2/3rds of the cheese and mix well again. Season with a little salt and pepper but be careful with the salt as the bacon could be salty.
- Place all this in an oven proof dish and mix the breadcrumbs with the remaining cheese and sprinkle liberally over the top. Place this in the oven for about 20 minutes.
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